Buying A House?

[rics21]

was considering to buy a house in bangkok, having too much problems staying in a condominium.

i will buy with my wives' name, may have to pay installments.

i m working for a MNC in thailand and have a work permit. spoken to a few banks, most likely to get an approval with me and my wives salary if we have a 50% down payment.

so there are a few alternatives i m considering:

1. buying a house from a established developer:

i. Land and House - cost around 4.39m for a 50 sqwah 3 bedroom 3 toilet house

ii. Sansiri - cost around 5.5m for a 50 sqwah 3 bedroom 3 toilet house

iii. M.K. - cost around 4.3m for a 80 sqwah 3 bedroom 3 toilet house

2. buying a piece of land from the bank (lost of land on auction at the bangkok bang or krungsri (BAY))

i. buy a piece of land around 100 sq wah @ 2m and build it with - Landy Home Co., Ltd @ approx. 3m = 5m

ii. buy a piece of land around 100 sq wah @ 2m and build it with with local contractors @ approx 1.5m = 3.5m (i will have to supervise a lot of the workmanship)

any advise?

[MikeyIdea]

100 sqw for 2 million sounds too cheap, where can you get land for 20,000 bath per sqw?

[Khun Jean]

100 sqw for 2 million sounds too cheap, where can you get land for 20,000 bath per sqw?

What about almost everywhere except in bangkok city center and some moo bans.

There are many houses for sale everywhere. Myself i prefer a house in an established area and at least a few years old.

You can inspect the area and the house. If the house is in good shape after a few years it probably will be for a lot longer.

Edited December 9, 2010 by Khun Jean

[rgs2001uk]

100 sqw for 2 million sounds too cheap, where can you get land for 20,000 bath per sqw?

Ram Inthra rd is one place I can think of, it all depends on what you consider to be Bkk, Min Buri is another area where land can be had for less than 20,000 baht per tw.

The land I mention is not on some overpriced moo baan where land seems to cost almost 4 times the price in can be purchased for outside of the moo baan.

The problem you face is this in most cases is undeveloped land, it will need clearing and levelling, then you may have to pay to get hooked up to electric and water supplies, then applying for planning permission etc etc.

Another consideration when buying from a developer is access to and from the property, the wife and I were going to look at a development in the Mai Sai area the other day, couldnt find the place,phone the sales office and asked for directions and the sales staff couldnt tell us how to get to the place.

[trogers]

i m working for a MNC in thailand

i will have to supervise a lot of the workmanship

Unless the MNC is paying you peanuts, I do not see how you will save $ taking time off to supervise.

If only sporadic inspections resulting in frequent rejections of work done and materials installed, the cost overrun and time delay will kill any $ savings planned, not counting the possibility of having to change contractors a few times.

[rics21]

i m working for a MNC in thailand

i will have to supervise a lot of the workmanship

Unless the MNC is paying you peanuts' date=' I do not see how you will save $ taking time off to supervise.

If only sporadic inspections resulting in frequent rejections of work done and materials installed, the cost overrun and time delay will kill any $ savings planned, not counting the possibility of having to change contractors a few times.

[/quote']

i m not thinking to save the money, i m thinking to get

1. a house in a better area. most of the developers are building in the sub urban districts of bangkok or deep in the sois.

2. the house i wanted, most of the developers are building houses in weird shapes and sizes to minimize the use of materials. they have like 15 sqm rooms, who can fit in a 15sqm room?

so u think it is a better idea to buy from the developers?

there is actually 1 more choice to it.

my wife found a mooban this afternoon at khu bon soi 27, it belong to M.K.

they are selling plots of land in the mooban for buyers to build the houses of their choice. it will save a lot of time on the applying for water and electricity.

the mooban is almost full with most of the buyers building their houses with either M.K. or Landy home.

but i m worried if it is worth to spend time on the supervision on the construction.

[trogers]

my wife found a mooban this afternoon at khu bon soi 27, it belong to M.K.

they are selling plots of land in the mooban for buyers to build the houses of their choice. it will save a lot of time on the applying for water and electricity.

the mooban is almost full with most of the buyers building their houses with either M.K. or Landy home.

but i m worried if it is worth to spend time on the supervision on the construction.

Work with Landy Home if they have an in-house design team. Brief them on the specifications of the house you desire, and a budget, and let them present some schematics for initial agreement. When details are developed and agreed by you, a contract with firm price and time schedule can then be made for them to supervise and construct your home.

[xerostar]

If you want to spend the next year or two stressing yourself out and risking your marriage,

sure go ahead and buy some land in Bangkok and build a house!

You'd be better off to spend your time going to see established homes that are for sale.

If you find one you like, at most you might have to ask what the neighbors are like?

or is the place in a secure neighborhood?

You will see exactly what you're paying for, not some architect/salesperson's drawing on a map.

When the building is finished that doesn't mean the project is finished.

You'll be spending years getting the landscaping and garden completed.

e.g. The trees won't look good for 10 years or more,

If you build a pool it will increase your workload and expenses.

It takes a long time to put all the other sundries together before you have the perfect home.

And that's assuming you had a good builder who employed good tradesmen.

.. and a builder that didn't disappear with your money when the building was half finished.

The potential for a huge number of problems comes with building anywhere, especially in Thailand.

e.g. You might finish up with a nice home surrounded by shacks and half-built concrete wrecks.

Too many variables ..

A lot of Thai Visa members will ask: "Why buy when you can rent?" save your cash and your sanity ..

...

[dave111223]

A lot of Thai Visa members will ask: "Why buy when you can rent?" save your cash and your sanity ..

...

Or do one better and just live under an overpass, then you don't have to spend on rent or buying! Cha-ching

[PattayaParent]

i m not thinking to save the money, i m thinking to get

1. a house in a better area. most of the developers are building in the sub urban districts of bangkok or deep in the sois.

2. the house i wanted, most of the developers are building houses in weird shapes and sizes to minimize the use of materials. they have like 15 sqm rooms, who can fit in a 15sqm room?

so u think it is a better idea to buy from the developers?

there is actually 1 more choice to it.

my wife found a mooban this afternoon at khu bon soi 27, it belong to M.K.

they are selling plots of land in the mooban for buyers to build the houses of their choice. it will save a lot of time on the applying for water and electricity.

the mooban is almost full with most of the buyers building their houses with either M.K. or Landy home.

but i m worried if it is worth to spend time on the supervision on the construction.

YES, otherwise you won't get what you want.

[trogers]

A lot of Thai Visa members will ask: "Why buy when you can rent?" save your cash and your sanity ..

...

Or do one better and just live under an overpass, then you don't have to spend on rent or buying! Cha-ching

Do one better. Get to know a girl of the night and bunk in her rented room for free...

[bbradsby]

Best of both worlds might be to buy a [big] lot in an established moobahn, and design & have built your own, personally-tailored, well-constructed home. That way, you get your home your way, and already know the 'feel' of the neighborhood.

As Thai family houses change hands infrequently, letting directly-adjacent neighbors show their hands first - by being the last guy into a built-out Soi - will illustrate what kind of neighbors they'll be from day one: did they pave over their entire property, hang laundry to dry in the street, populate all street parking spots with tires to save them for their vehicles... then build shade structures in those spaces! In a spanking new moobahn, it's a crap-shoot what you'll end up with as a neighborhood.

If you choose to go after a lot outside a moobahn, look for lots big enough to have a large buffer against potential chaos beyond the boundary. And work to get a sense of the development type & quality, traffic, transit, flooding [!] trends in the area.

Whether in-Moobahn or out, if your time is valuable and/or your area of expertise is not in the construction industry, hire an expat construction manager as your agent to run the project and protect your best interests from conceptual design to completion of construction. We provide such services. Just PM me if you'd like to discuss this further.

-Bruce Bradsby

bdb/a